Madelyn's EI evaluation & other news

Today we had Madelyn evaluated by a team from Early Intervention (EI), which is through the school district. It's essentially special education for children under 5 years old. They believe that treating issues EARLY in developmentally delayed children, or kids with other handicaps is better than the "wait & see" mantality that was used in years past. Since this is a service through the school district it is free to any child who qualifies. In order to qualify for services, the child has to show delays in 2 or more areas. They did a test similar to the Baley Scale Test that was used at OHSU. This test scored Madelyn a little better than the Baley Scale, she scored a bit better on this test for her motor skills, but still low on the congnitive skills. Her scores showed a delay in every area, so she qualifies for therapies. The issues that the Occupational Therapist (OT) & the Physical Therpaist (PT) saw are some weakness on her left side with a preference for using her right hand, poor trunk control, & weakness in both legs. All these things we already knew, and are glad to have someone validate the concerns we've been seeing, and we're really excited that something pro-active will be done about her issues. Madelyn will be getting OT & PT a few times per month, and then Speach will be thrown in when needed. The good news is that she's starting to make some progress on the things that she was WAY behind on back in early August. She's started making a bit more noise, and she's even started pivoting a bit while playing on her tummy. She still has quite a bit of work ahead of her to be able to "catch up", but we are very optomistic that she will with therapies.

In other news, both babies have their first head colds. It started last week with Aaron having some congestion with a bit of a cough. On Sunday the girls started with the runny noses, and today they had a bit of a cough. So far the worst part has been when they wake up with very crusty noses, and that Katelyn is fussy. Madelyn seems to be her same ole' happy girl self. Katelyn was extremely grouchy tonight, and screamed for about an hour non stop. She wanted to be held, but she was really stiff, and couldn't get comfy. She screamed in my arms for an hour before I finally just had to let her cry it out in her bed for the first time. It only took her 8 minutes to fall asleep, and all 8 of those minutes she was screaming while I watched the clock. It killed me not to go in & pick her up, but it worked. We'll see how the night goes. Hopefully she'll be able to sleep well.

The girls are now also sleeping in seperate cribs. Their first night was last night and they did very well. They love having a whole bed to themselves, and actually slept a lot better. Now I'm thinking, why didn't we do this sooner?!

Jacob has lost his 2nd baby tooth! It happened last night during dinner. Unfortunately the tooth fairy forgot to visit our house last night!!! I know, I know, worse mother of the year award goes to me!!! I had to think of something fast @ 6:00 a.m. when he came in to wake me up screaming that the tooth fairy forgot him! I don't think I've ever felt more awful! I told him that since he lost his tooth so late in the evening, the tooth fairy already had her list of kids to visit made out for the night, and that there's a 24 hr waiting list for kids to be visited by the tooth fairy. Thankfully it worked, and the tooth fairy WILL be visiting for sure tonight! With an extra dollar! Maybe she should make it an extra couple bucks for the completely disappointed look that Jacob's mommy had to see thismorning.

We still haven't heard from our Ped. about Katelyn's weirdness. I will be calling and "stalking" him tomorrow morning for news.

And that's a wrap! For now anyway.